High Strung Guitar: Don Quixote

It’s kind of a Certs day – two features in one – our Second Week Special on High Strung Guitar and our Friday Flipside. Gordon Lightfoot is an artist that liberally used the high strung guitar on his landmark, platinum certified album from 1974 – “Sundown.” I’m not going to feature a cut from “Sundown”; however, I prefer an earlier tune since it better showcased the high strung guitar. Today’s feature is the title cut from Gord’s 1972 album “Don Quixote.”

“Don Quixote” also was the “B” side to the single “Beautiful” which failed to make the Top 40 in the US as it only peaked at #58. It was, however, a top 15 pop single and #1 adult contemporary record in Lightfoot’s native Canada. “Don Quixote” did not chart in either country.

While Lightfoot plays the high strung guitar on his “Sundown” album, it is not him that plays this treble instrument on “Don Quixote.” The late John “Red” Shea, Lightfoot’s lead guitarist, plays high strung, and it is evident throughout the tune in the left channel. Shea uses a variety of styles to accompany Lightfoot’s fingerstyle 6-string. These include strumming, fingerstyle, flatpicking, and silence when absolutely necessary.